March 27, 2014

New Insights From Mr. Peanut

Jimmy Carter was in Washington to chat with his friends at the WaPo. His lips were moving so we know he was saying something foolish. Here we go, as reported by the Times, on a possible Presidential pardon for Edward Snowden:

WASHINGTON — Former President Jimmy Carter, on a swing through the nation’s capital to promote a new book, said Wednesday that he would consider a pardon for Edward J. Snowden, the former contractor who leaked classified information about the National Security Agency. But Mr. Carter said that he was not certain he would grant one.

...

On Mr. Snowden, Mr. Carter at first said he would not pardon him, “because you can’t pardon someone who hasn’t been tried and convicted.”

But, he added, if Mr. Snowden came back to the United States, was tried, found guilty and faced a death sentence, “I would certainly consider a pardon, yes.”

“But I can’t say what I would do,” Mr. Carter said, “because I don’t have the information that President Obama has about the damage that has been done to our security apparatus.”

He would "consider a pardon" if Snowden were sentenced to death but "can't say" what he would do? This, from the guy who just last fall was calling for an end to capital punishment? These plot twists are tricky. Then again, a commutation is not a pardon, so maybe Jimmy would knock the sentence down from death to life without granting a full pardon.

And as a bonus, I am 99% confident that this next assertion is pure fantasy, but lack the time to pin down the last 1%:

Mr. Carter, 89, has made no secret in recent days of his disdain for the N.S.A., telling television interviewers during his book tour that he now relies on the “snail mail” of the United States Postal Service, rather than email, for sending sensitive messages. During a midday appearance at The Washington Post, he warned about the reach of the security agency.

“If you sent an email today, they recorded it,” the former president said. “If you’ve made a telephone call today, they’ve recorded it. They record the entire thing. They don’t go back and listen to your words — they say — but if they want to, later on, they can go back and listen to the exact words. I do think that needs to be corrected, and I hope President Obama will do it.”

I know the NSA keeps their own database of the metadata, which is the billing records routinely recorded by the telecom companies. But I don't recall reading that the telecoms or the NSA are routinely recording each and every call made in the United States, which is the obvious context of Mr. Peanut's remarks.

It has been reported that the NSA did "swallow up" all the phone communications in one target country on a rolling 30 day basis, and saved a tiny fraction of the voice clips for more than 30 days. But even that effort virtually exhausted their data analysis and storage capabilities; the idea that such a program is being employed in the US would merit a major headline, if true.

And even if every Valley Girl's chat with her latest girlfriend about her latest boyfriend was being recorded as per the NSA program employed abroad, Jimmy's claim that "if they want to, later on, they can go back and listen to the exact words" would only be true within the thirty day rolling window.

Ah, well. Thinking about Jimmy inspires an arithmetic problem. A stopped clock is famously right twice a day. Clearly, Jimmy has not achieved that standard. But how often is a clock that loses one second every hour right, and is Jimmy more accurate than that?

Putin, whose lamented Soviet Union was then Hitler’s ally, knows Hitler’s tactics. If Putin had a sense of humor he would justify as “R2P” his policy of bringing home to the safety of Mother Russia many of the Russians residing in contiguous countries. R2P — “responsibility to protect” — was the moral principle the Obama administration invoked to justify involvement in the seven-month assault on Moammar Qaddafi, who posed no threat to us but supposedly did to Libyans.

In a recent New Yorker interview, Obama praised himself for being “comfortable with complexity” and unraveled the Middle East’s complications: “It would be profoundly in the interest of citizens throughout the region if Sunnis and Shias weren’t intent on killing each other.” This is the president as poseur — detached, laconic, arch, almost droll: If only — apologies to Kipling — the lesser breeds without the law would behave.

Jeebus, what a retarded toad.
If Jimmy wasn't real a latter day Faulkner would have to dream him up.

The interceding 28 years between that moralizing, flap jowled, hang-dog dope and the present nicely scrubbed, marginally articulate imbecile with impending bursitis from patting himself on his brilliant back seems like some kind of golden age, even though it was populated by only one colossus and three decidedly non colossi.

And - Spoiler Alert! - there is a trick answer to the stopped clock v. Jimmeh question.

Is there? I rather idly figured 60x60x12/365.25 and came up with 118 years (and a couple months). That seemed to pass the reasonableness test (Jimmuh will likely die before he's right), but wasn't interesting enough to comment.

If Jimmy wasn't real a latter day Faulkner would have to dream him up.

He might've been who the late Harry Crews had in mind as "Oyster Boy" in The Knockout Artist"

When Jake comes in with Oyster-Boy, thin, pale, shedding skin, a dog collar around his neck led by the enormous and salacious Purvis, we know that he has crept into the darkest side of town, the part most of us don’t want to see but can’t help staring at.

"Jeebus, what a retarded toad.
If Jimmy wasn't real a latter day Faulkner would have to dream him up"

Ig-- absolutely brilliant.

The 1981-2007 Golden Age was instigated foremost by Reagan, but there were other very important greats, Thatcher, Friedman, Pope John PaulII, Lech W even Steve Jobs and Gates and others. We are all beneficiaries of the liberty and economic freedom they recovered for us. We have to step up now, everyday.

When Adultery of the Heart goes to Hell, will he trail along behind Ted Kennedy like an annoying brat, as he did on the donk convention podium in 1980, waiting for him to acknowledge him? Satan might torture him by having fat Ted ignore him to the enjoyment of the rest of the otherwise miserable souls.

When possible, I avoid the Godwinning, Catherine, with the help of Potemkin, secured
the lands of the Caucasus, Alexander 1, finished the job, Nicholas 1, and even the good czar made sure to hold that territory.

Let us turn our attention to Matthew Yglesias, the Executive Editor of Ezra Klein’s new site. As my friend Pejman Yousefzadeh has well documented, Yglesias is just not that bright. He thinks Joe Lieberman is a dumb Jewish politician; was shocked to discover Senators represent the states as opposed to populations; was unaware of a black conservative tradition; couldn’t understand why Miami didn’t expand westward (hint: a giant swamp); had no idea an incumbent President had been defeated in primaries (Jimmy Carter lost 13 primaries in 1980 to Ted Kennedy and Jerry Brown); thought Bobby Jindal’s reputation for intelligence was just ethnic stereotyping; argued it was okay to lie about having kids; wanted to know why Egypt didn’t have a Parliamentary system as if it’d matter and, by the way, it already does have one; thinks there are too many banks; thinks no banks have been chartered in 2013 even though banks were chartered in 2013; and the list goes on.

All political debate aside, this WSJ column lays out factually what ObummerCare is --subject to final reporting from th Big Gov Insurers-- about 1 Million previously uninsured added to insurance rolls; mostly older/sicker, with some younger subsidized taking insurance. A like number went from previously INsured to either MediCaid or UNinsured, and 4 Million were kicked off private insurance into Exchange Care some better off, most worse off (personal choice.) That's it... oh... cost to the taxpayers? $100+B/year. For what? mostly MediCaid expansion, but what does the rest go to? It can't be to subsidize --in part-- 1-2Million ExchangeCare insurereds. Even for Dems, this is a gross waste of a gigantic amount of money. Repaeal the damn thing: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303802104579451103019884322

Carter was the idiot would had us lining up for a little petrol, and decided it would be a good thing to ration fuel based on odd or even number on your license plate. What to do if you had to travel more than a tankful on a non ration day?

And the moron told us to put on a cardigan, and shiver in the dark.

I still spit on the sidewalk at the mention of his name. Disgusting individual. But Reagan did beat him like a drum AND I am sure that haunts him even today, so there is that.

Robert Laszewski proffers a 404Care obituary in the guise of a guide on using a defibrillator attached to a 7.5kV line to 'save' it.

I find the concept of announcing the requests for double (triple?) digit premium increases for 404Care on a state by state basis over the full month between May 27 and June 27 to be almost as heartwarming as knowing state insurance commissioners will be making announcements regarding the increases allowed from July through October.

Everybody is sure to get a good strong whiff of the Democrat's dead albatross on a regular basis during the entire campaign season.

Robert Laszewski proffers a 404Care obituary in the guise of a guide on using a defibrillator attached to a 7.5kV line to 'save' it.

I find the concept of announcing the requests for double (triple?) digit premium increases for 404Care on a state by state basis over the full month between May 27 and June 27 to be almost as heartwarming as knowing state insurance commissioners will be making announcements regarding the increases allowed from July through October.

Everybody is sure to get a good strong whiff of the Democrat's dead albatross on a regular basis during the entire campaign season.

Iggie, I once worked with a paralegal who thought wearing stiletto heels, pencil thin skirts with large slits up them and low cut tops was appropriate attire for a federal courtroom where her job was largely to bend down and retrieve documents from the file boxes. We finally sent her home to change.

RickB-- thanks for that Laszewski link. For the last 6 months I have viewed him as an 'honest broker' of ObummerCare info. But you know that the BigGov insurers won't screw the Dems with 20% rate hikes for 2015, that results in the death spiral for sure. The Insurers will muddle through, they'll push for 7-8% rate increases, and rely on the Bailout payments from ObummerCare to make them whole. They won't make any $$, but they won't be bankrupted either by Exchangecare. They'll kick the can for a year. And that's fine the Repubs will win elections on BAILOUT!! The bigger 2015 issue that comes up in summer/fall 2014 is Group renewals, the cancellations and rate hikes. ObummerCare will cause many small employers to drop coverage altogether or limit rate increases with higher co-pays and deductibles. And those employers will gladly tell everyone it's all because of Obummercare.

Gant was one of the ultimate SF warrior/diplomats. He had tremendous support from Petraeus and changed the paradigm in his part of Afghanistan. But he broke the rules and pissed off a lot of the senior officers.

Just like when CPT Will Swenson got screwed on his MoH because he spoke out about a complete screwup of fire support when he needed it most, the bureaucrats and incompetents have a way of bring those who do not observe every rule in the book down.

Our military is going through this big time now. We are approaching a garrison army just as in 1950, except there are a bunch of malevolent Leftists openly at work tearing it down.

I disagree wrt probable BluGovIns tactics. They have the Medicaid/Medicare management contracts which were the bribe to accept 404Care in pocket. WellPoint pulled the initial premium increase estimates from the same source Obama uses for his leadership qualities - but they stuck to them, as did almost all the other insurers. They will stick to high double digit increases again in order to protect the employer market by killing 404Care.

They're not going to allow Dr. Emengele's vision of a future without health insurance companies come to pass.

The comments at RB's link are quite depressing.
The only guy calling a spade a spade is an MD and not a single person suggests that junking this mess and freeing markets rather than capturing them might be a better course than trying to salvage the wreck of SS Obamacare, which is only fit to use as an artificial reef to stabilize Guam.

Hell, in 1959 my dad took a task force down off the west coast of South America and torched off a bunch of nukes in the upper atmosphere. The usual suspects warned us our kids were gonna die from Strontium 90 in their milk.

Then in 1962 he set off a bunch more out at Christmas Island in the Central Pacific.

--Iggie, I once worked with a paralegal who thought wearing stiletto heels, pencil thin skirts with large slits up them and low cut tops was appropriate attire for a federal courtroom where her job was largely to bend down and retrieve documents from the file boxes.--

Observing how some women treated Mrs Iggy, who dressed quite modestly, simply because she was attractive I don't see how it is anything less than a substantial net negative in a courtroom to dress provocatively. Even a lot of the guys who ogle them are simultaneously upset at the unprofessionalism.

I signed up for new comment email alerts to the judge's blog post and feel sorry for the poor guy as the marching morons continue to slap him around for observing human nature.

Clarice "--Iggie, I once worked with a paralegal who thought wearing stiletto heels, pencil thin skirts with large slits up them and low cut tops was appropriate attire for a federal courtroom where her job was largely to bend down and retrieve documents from the file boxes.--"

Being the careful employer you are, Clarice, I am sure you retained photographic evidence of the young lady reaching into the file boxes.